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March 03, 2005
Free Prize Outside
Maybe it’s just nostalgia but I think things have gotten worse for kids – in terms of packaging at least. Have you ever noticed how the prizes inside a box of Cracker Jacks have just gone down hill. Or look at cereal boxes, it takes something like a zillion box tops (and then more than $2 in fine print) to get a SpongeBob watch. McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Time still have pretty good happy meal toys from time to time, but other than that, boy it sure seems like a lot of sound and fury for pretty disappointing prizes.
Well, not if you’re a kid and you like green tea (maybe not totally mainstream I admit). I've already talked about how much I like Ito En tea and it's packaging. They have taken the concept of free prizes and taken it further. In their recent Ito en Ochaken & Ochaneko (tea dog and tea cat) mascot promotion, they put the prize on the outside. Yeah, right on the outside of the tea bottle. And they’re cool prizes. Little dogs and cats with teal leaf ears and little teas snacks (a green tea dog with rice and scallions named Ryoku, and English tea dog with cake named Earl, or a Jasmine tea cat named Min with rice cakes). My kids think they are awesome and hang them from their backpacks. So they are rabid to collect them all and have me driving around to every Asian food market in town.
American kid's snack foods take note. Make cool prizes (that reinforce your offering) and make them obvious and easy!!
Posted by johnza at March 3, 2005 05:16 PM
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